


5 times the Justice League catch Bruce acting domestically

by TimesBeingWhatTheyAre



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: 5 Things, 5+1, 5+1 Things, Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily (DCU) Fluff, Batman is a good Dad, Bruce Wayne is a Good Dad, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Family, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Secret Identity Reveal, The Justice League finds out, batfam, gen - Freeform, its just cutesy, justice league - Freeform, no beta we die like jason, outside pov, seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:29:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23586910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimesBeingWhatTheyAre/pseuds/TimesBeingWhatTheyAre
Summary: ...and the one time he lets them see itaka 5 times the kids torment Bruce, and the time that he actually arranges a meet-up and minds are blown
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & His Kids
Comments: 113
Kudos: 3670
Collections: Ashes' Library





	1. 5 things

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [the bat's nest](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12264420) by [helenabertinellis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/helenabertinellis/pseuds/helenabertinellis). 



> Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, just the plot of this fic
> 
> I've also never seen any of the Batman series, nor read any of the comics, so this is based solely on my love of Batfamily fanfics and so please ignore any technical accuracies here! I've tried my best to keep it accurate, but this is all on shaky ground
> 
> This is mildly au in that a) Bruce keeps his identity secret for most of the fic, b) none of the JLA know he has kids and c) they've never met them before
> 
> Enjoy!

_1\. At a meeting_

“-And that just about sums up the meeting,” Batman finished saying, placing his small pile of papers down on the table and looking around at everyone through his cowl.

“Does anyone have anything to add?” he asked in his low, gravelly voice, and Barry choked down a laugh again. It sounded a little like a hiccup, Barry hoped, because his self-preservation instinct was not kicking in and if he wasn’t careful then-

Batman tilted his head towards Flash. “Flash. What would you like to add?” he asked calmly.

Flash panicked for a moment, his eyes growing wide as he looked around the full table of superheroes, and distantly knew that this must be Batman’s revenge for his tiny little utterly insignificant interruptions. 

“Uh- no- I just-“ he stuttered, looking at Batman and dropping his gaze as soon as he caught it. He flushed red with embarrassment, and glanced up again at the head of the table, turning pleading eyes to Diana, who rolled her eyes back at him.

“I think that’s everything, Batman,” Diana said, taking pity on him, and Barry slouched down in relief. Thank goodness for kind-hearted heroes.

Batman nodded in confirmation, and stood up, picking his papers up with him. 

“Meeting adjourned,” he said formally, and began walking out.

Everyone else stood slowly to their feet as well, the air of business gone from the room, and stretched out tired limbs. Most of them began to chatter amongst themselves, but Barry hurried over to Diana (and he was particularly good at hurrying) and tapped her urgently on the shoulder.

“Diana, can you mention to Batman before-“

She turned around to face him, confused for a moment, and he continued.

“-The, you-know-“ he whispered, and pointed at Batman’s retreating back. She turned to look at Batman’s imposing figure and did a double-take at the sight.

On the back of Batman’s left arm, there was a neon pink handprint, and the words underneath read ‘Steph was here’. Underneath it, in slightly smaller but no less bright paint, were the words ‘And Dick! We love you B!’.

Diana gasped in horrified amusement, glancing around the room to see how many people had noticed. There was only one or two people staring over in the direction, but she knew it would change soon.

“I better-“ she said distractedly, and Barry nodded vigorously. 

“Please,” he said with a cringe at the thought of what Batman would do if he pointed out something like that.

“I’ll just-“ she said, and went.

Barry watched from a safe distance as she tapped the man on the shoulder, making him whirl around to face her blankly. The abrupt movement caught the attention of quite a few heroes and Flash just covered his face in his hands, not wanting to see Batman eviscerate everyone in the nearby vicinity.

The room fell quiet as more people caught sight of the graffiti on the Bat’s uniform, and he heard a few quickly suppressed snickers at the audacity of the culprit, and the contents of the message itself.

“You’ve got- some paint-“ Diana said bravely, although nothing less would be expected of Wonder Woman. 

Batman looked unimpressed under his cowl, the lines of his mouth staying straight and distant.

“Paint?” he asked lowly, and she nodded, her own expression twisted into a barely held-back smile. “What do you mean?” the man continued, and Diana sighed. 

“Let me just-“ she said, pushing him lightly to turn him back around, and he growled lowly at her. The Flash winced at the threat, but Diana just rolled her eyes, whipping out a phone from a carefully disguised pocket. Barry really hoped she hadn’t been hiding it in her bra.

She spent a moment fumbling with the technology, then managed to snap a picture of the graffiti. By this point, everyone in the room was watching, and the room only remained quiet out of fear of Batman’s retaliation.

He took the phone from Diana, looked down at the picture, and then, just as Barry expected intense threat and rage, the man did something entirely unexpected.

He sighed exasperatedly and muttered, almost quietly enough not to be picked up on by everyone in the room. “Goddamn kids. When did they even-“ then abruptly seemed to remember where he was and looked up to see everyone in the room watching him.

Batman nodded politely to Diana, and turned around again and walked out the room. Barry blinked.

“Is it just me or- did Bats just sound fond?” he asked the room at large.

There was no response to his question, but Barry saw Diana smiling at Batman’s retreating back, and he thought that maybe, just maybe, Batman did have a human side.

* * *

  
_2\. On a mission_

“Superman, watch out!” Batman yelled, launching a batarang at a robot that had made it to metres away from their resident Kryptonian. 

“Thanks,” the hero in question called back, neglecting to point out that the robot was unlikely to be able to actually hurt him. The batarang sliced through its thin metal body easily, and it fell from the sky with a small crash. He glanced towards Batman with a grateful smile, but the man was already swinging off to a different area to catch some more of the flighty robots before they spread further into Metropolis.

Normally, the two of them wouldn’t have been necessary for such weak robots, but the sheer number of them made the situation hard to deal with. Superman had put out a general call for assistance on the comms, and Batman responded the quickest, flying over from wherever his secret hideout was in Gotham to help out. 

A hero like Flash or Diana might have been better suited to the enemy in question, given that Flash could take them out at superspeed like Superman and Diana could fly and thus catch them in the air, but Batman was never one to back down from a challenge.

Clark watched from the corner of his eye as Batman launched another grappling hook from his belt, throwing three batarangs as he swung, each of them hitting a robot as they flew around the man, and shook his head with a smile. He focused back on his own robots, leaving Batman to get his sorted, and so it was that he missed when the man reached for the next set of Batarangs and found nothing left.

Batman cursed under his breath and swung down to the floor, evading the robots just long enough to wrench two Batarangs out of the sparking piles of ex-robot and using them as small daggers to defend himself from them as they began swooping down on him. Each swipe took out a robot, or at least sliced at joints and thin metal weapons, but with his ability to move and fight hampered, he was beginning to get a little hemmed in.

Superman was still fighting his own fight a little way off, and though Bruce was sure that the man had heard him curse, he didn’t seem to notice that there was anything wrong. Batman rolled his eyes and fought harder.

Superman was indeed engrossed in his own battle, and so it wasn’t until he noted a black and grey addition to the fight that he noticed anything was wrong with his fellow superhero.

Another person swung straight past Clark, and were he not wearing Batman’s symbol on his chest, he thought that he might have tried to take out the newcomer. As it was, he allowed him to pass by and turned to face the direction the man had headed, making sure not to take too much attention off of the robots that were still trying desperately to surround him. He was surprised to see that Batman had changed tactics and was fighting on the floor using martial arts instead of the very effective method of just thrown projectiles, and even more surprised when the new man joined him on the floor, fighting back to back.

With the two of them now working together, the robots had been mostly destroyed within a few minutes, and Superman zoomed around to clear up the last few robots that hung in the sky. They’d have to find the creator sooner rather than later, but the robots were no longer a threat to the people of Metropolis, which he was glad to see.

He turned around quickly, and flew over to where Batman and his… partner? Friend? Ally?...stood, engaged in conversation, and Superman couldn’t help but listen in with his enhanced hearing.

“You know you shouldn’t be fighting when injured, B! Why didn’t you just let me take care of it? You weren’t properly equipped or anything-“ the unknown man was saying to Batman, his voice younger than Clark had expected, and his tone chiding.

“I’m fine, Nightwing,” Batman responded in irritation. “I can handle myself,”

“Yes, but the whole point of us being here is that you shouldn’t have to,” the newly-revealed Nightwing reasoned. “You’re lucky that I was near; Dami won’t be pleased if he has to-“

Superman landed next to the duo, and the conversation cut off suddenly.

He tilted his head, and smiled at Nightwing. “Hello,” he said formally, expecting the man (an ally, he had decided) to be rather like Batman in his mannerisms.

“Hello! Nice to meet you!” Nightwing chirped back, a wide smile splitting across his face, easily visible under the domino mask he wore. Clark tried his best not to recoil in shock.

“You too…” he said, then realised he hadn’t introduced himself. “I’m Superman,” he said, a tad unnecessarily.

“Nightwing,” the man said, and reached out a hand to shake Clark’s with. 

The comms suddenly crackled to life, Diana’s voice coming through Batman’s comms loud and clear. Clark suddenly realised that he had turned his off during the battle to stop himself getting distracted from hearing where the robots were approaching from. He flicked the switch back on again.

“I take it my assistance is no longer necessary?” she asked dryly, and Batman responded in the affirmative. 

Nightwing turned to salute Clark jauntily, then looped an arm around Batman’s shoulders, having to reach up to do so, and dragged the man away, in the opposite direction to his jet.

Batman blinked, then followed the lead of Nightwing, leaving without a parting word to Clark, who stood alone, surrounded by (hopefully) dead robots, and was more than a little confused.

“We do have dinner tomorrow,” Batman said blankly, Clark hearing it through his now switched-on comm. 

He heard the slightly fainter response of Nightwing; a hearty chuckle and “I know! Imagine that I just want to spend time with you sometimes, even though you are grumpy and old and-“

“Batman, your comm is on,” Diana reported dutifully, and Clark watched from a distance as Batman quickly flicked it off.

“Who- was that?” he asked Diana, and received a light snicker in response, deeper than anticipated.

“He’s got Batman whipped,” Arthur responded, and Clark wondered just how many people had actually heard the little conversation that had just happened. He hadn’t known that Aquaman was even on the comms, let alone listening.

Clark didn’t respond to Arthur’s teasing, instead gazing out at Nightwing and Batman and, for once, appreciating that Batman did have a softer side, as the man made no move to shrug the newcomer away from him.

Dinner though? Clark thought for a moment, and forced down a laugh. There was no way that Nightwing was anything other than a good ally.

Right?

* * *

_3\. During downtime_

  
It wasn’t often that the Justice League found themselves spending time together outside of missions and training, but on rare occasions, members would drift together after one of the aforementioned activities, and group together in the break room.

With one exception.

Batman rarely ever joined them, and Hal thought he could probably count on one hand the number of times he’d seen Batman step foot in the break room. The man may have funded it (somehow, although the running theory was a sponsorship from one of Gotham’s millionaires) but he wasn’t one for fun and games. 

Which was why it was so surreal to see him sitting on one of the plush couches when Hal walked in to grab a cup of coffee.

He walked past the man at first, going straight for the mugs, because it had been a bit of a hectic night. Nothing to call the Justice League in about, but enough that Hal hadn’t really slept until about 6 in the morning, and then he’d agreed to meet Barry for a training session at 10. Three hours of sleep was not going to be enough to get him through the Flash’s insane concept of what ‘training’ should be, but maybe a cup of coffee would at least give him enough energy to try.

So, Hal thought, he could probably be forgiven for not noticing the dark figure slumped slightly on the couch. Batman was, after all, a stealth expert, and even though he clearly wasn’t trying to hide, it seemed a little like he was just naturally a quiet presence.

He turned around, cup of coffee in hand, and made his way over to the sofa with a yawn, and almost spilt the burning liquid all over himself at the sight.

"Batman! I wasn’t- I wasn’t expecting you here,” he startled, and received no immediate response. He figured that Batman was giving him his usual ‘I am not impressed’ look and cringed slightly, walking hesitantly over to the opposite couch and sitting down awkwardly.

“Sorry- I- um, how are you?” he tried, not used to engaging the man in conversation, but willing to try.

There was still no response.

Hal frowned and squinted more at the man, and suddenly realised that his eyes were closed, and he wasn’t sitting in the chair, he was more slumped against the arm. Batman was asleep.

Green Lantern’s eyes widened in shock. Personally, he was of the opinion that Batman was a meta and didn’t need sleep to function, but his theory had had a few holes poked through it with his new revelation. The man must be firmly asleep to have not responded to Hal’s presence at all, although the man wondered how comfortable the position he was in was. It looked a little crooked, and Hal winced at the pain Batman would probably have in his neck when he woke up.

Unless he had super healing. Which seemed quite likely.

Hal watched as the man’s armour-coated chest rose and fell softly, and smiled a little. It seemed oddly human of a man that he only knew to be serious; oddly human to have fallen asleep in the first place he could find a little comfort, and Green Lantern felt his discomfort towards the untrusting Batman thaw a small bit.

He looked around the room, relaxing and taking a sip of his coffee, and wondered if there was a blanket or something he could throw over the man. Then he thought about it and decided that Batman wouldn’t appreciate it.

Out of the blue, he suddenly heard Batman say something. 

Hal jumped again, cursing quietly as a little coffee landed on his previously clean top, and then looked up at Batman.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” he said softly, but realised that the man wasn’t actually awake. He frowned, and leant in a little closer.

“No,” he heard Batman breath out, and Hal cocked his head, confused. No? Was he- sleep talking?

“Jason, please, no-“ Batman said again, a little louder, and Green Lantern’s brow furrowed as he caught an unusual undertone of distress in the man’s voice. Never mind sleep talking, it sounded more like a nightmare.

“Why,” Batman choked out, and Hal placed his coffee down carefully by his feet, standing up and walking over to the other man. He bit his lip softly, seeing Batman’s lower face twisted into a grimace of pain, and reached out a hand.

“Hey, Batman, wake up,” Hal said uncertainly, placing a gentle hand on Batman’s bicep. It wasn’t a firm grip, so it was entirely unexpected to have his cautious hand grabbed tightly and twisted, until the world around Hal blurred and he blinked up at the ceiling from his new position on the floor.

“What…?” he trailed off, blinking again to clear his vision, and Batman was suddenly standing next to him, offering a hand.

Hal took it, and was pulled upright. 

“-Sorry,” Batman said, teeth clenched a little, and Hal realised that Batman must have been the one to flip him.

He laughed awkwardly. “Don’t worry man. Reflexes, I get you,” he reassured, and Batman stood still for a moment, then abruptly turned and walked out.

Hal watched him go with a frown, feeling a little sore from his unexpected tumble and a little concerned for a man who, up until ten minutes ago, he had believed to be virtually unfeeling. True, there had been the odd slip here and there, like when the Nightwing figure had shown up, but on the whole, Hal realised that he knew very little about the man. Mostly by Batman’s own design.

Nevertheless, Green Lantern resolved quietly to keep an eye out for him. It couldn’t be fun to always have to be the leader, and it looked like the hero felt more than Hal had ever thought he could.

Maybe he would be able to help out, now and then.

Hal sighed quietly, and tossed back his quickly cooling coffee. He had training to get to.

* * *

_4\. During training_

“Ha! Take that!” the Flash crowed at Hawkgirl from across the room, panting slightly from the exertion of their spar. Hawkgirl lay similarly worn out on the floor, where Barry had knocked her moments prior, but leapt to her feet again with a growl.

“I’m not done yet!” she cried out stubbornly, and Barry whined at her.

“Really? It’s been like hours!” he said, standing up straight from his fighting position and pouting at her, rubbing the blossoming bruise on his chin from one of her earlier hits.

“Flash is right. Take a five minute break,” Batman commanded from the side-lines, and J’onn spared a second to glance his way. The man was looking thoughtfully at the training mat, clearly running over the fight that had just occurred, mind whirring away.

J’onn wondered what his insight was. “What do you think?” he asked Batman directly, foregoing the use of his telepathy out of respect for Batman’s previous request not to enter his mind.

The man turned to face J’onn, not startled by his words, but not yet having a review formed with words.

The Martian walked over to Batman, knowing it typically made humans more comfortable to be within average hearing range whilst having a conversation, and waited patiently for the man to form a response.

“They are improving,” he said, slowly, clearly thinking out the rest of the sentence. “But they still rely too much on their powers,”

J’onn nodded, having seen the way that the Flash relied on speed as opposed to pure skill and Shayera made liberal usage of her wings to fly literal circles above Barry to gain the advantage.

“A match without powers then?” he suggested, and Batman nodded once in agreement. 

“You or a forcefield?” Batman asked, and J’onn considered the question. The forcefield would match battle conditions better, and probably weaken them alongside the loss of their powers, but using his own telepathy to block their powers would grant him the opportunity to flex his telepathic muscles, which was something he hadn’t had much opportunity to do in recent times.

“I will,” he announced, and Batman turned to face the table that Flash and Hawkgirl were standing next to with squash in hand. 

“Again, no powers!” he called out, and Barry groaned loudly. Hawkgirl flashed a nasty look at Batman, who stared back impassively, and J’onn allowed himself a flash of amusement as he watched the exchange. They did all hate fighting without powers, which was half the reason they were made to do it so often.

Flash chugged down the last of his juice, and zipped back to his position in the centre of the hall. Shayera placed down her own cup and walked out to join him, both of them waiting impatiently for the touch of his mind to eliminate their abilities.

It took a moment for J’onn to locate their minds and carefully press down on the links between their conscious thoughts and their powers. It didn’t really take away their abilities to wield their usual superpowers, but it prevented either of the pair from accessing it. Batman’s forcefield worked in a similar way, but the machine couldn’t isolate specific areas of the mind like the Martian could, and so its effect left the victim confused and weakened enough that they simply couldn’t concentrate on their powers to operate them.

“Begin!” J’onn heard Batman call out, and the pair began to spar again, this time at human speed and without the use of the air as a viable fighting space. Like this, Shayera easily defeated Barry, and it was barely five minutes before he was lying flat on his back, with Hawkgirl lying practically on top of him, with her arm pressed across his throat and her knee to the lower region of his stomach.

They stayed like that for a couple seconds, then Hawkgirl relinquished the Flash from her hold, stepping back and allowing him back up. 

Batman strode forwards, and J’onn let go of his hold on their powers, allowing their control back to them, and freeing his mind to return to his usual concentration on the world around him.

“Good job, Shayera. Barry, you need to work on your sparring skills. You can’t always rely on your superspeed, and your basic abilities need improvement,” he critiqued, and Barry flushed slightly in humiliation.

“You try fighting with your powers off then!” he challenged, and Batman paused, turning to face J’onn. J’onn raised an eyebrow, and Batman nodded to him.

“I will then. Please pay attention, and maybe you can pose a challenge to Shayera in next months’ session,” he commanded, and settled into a defensive position.

J’onn slipped into his mind, searching for his powers, but was surprised to find nothing that was meta or more than just human within Batman’s mind. 

_‘I do not have powers,’_ he suddenly heard Batman think at him. _‘This is to prove to Barry that powers are not all that matter,’_

J’onn nodded mentally, keeping a light touch on Batman’s mind to ensure that if he did use any powers then J’onn would be able to supress them (not that he didn’t trust the man), and dampened Shayera’s again.

“Begin,” he said, both aloud and into both of their minds. 

They sprung into action, Shayera beginning with a sweeping kick which Batman avoided easily, and returned with a simple uppercut, which Shayera instinctively tried to use her wings to avoid, but caught herself when the action did nothing and instead danced backwards, out of his reach.

Barry was watching intently from the side lines, no doubt able to see in fine detail every single twist, defence and opposition, and how both simply operated off pure skill, not augmented by any superpower.

The fight went on for about five minutes, both fairly evenly matched, with Batman holding the edge but both of them holding back due to the fact it was a spar and not a battle.

In fact, the spar would likely have gone on for a while longer were it not for a sudden beeping to come from Batman’s utility belt, strapped to the man’s waist even though he didn’t use anything from it. Batman froze, allowing Shayera’s blow to land, and he flew backwards a few steps before he caught himself.

In those few moments, J’onn caught a series of fleeting images flying across Batman’s mind. One was of a teenager, bloody and broken, cradled within his arms and clearly dead. Another was of a young woman, slumped on her side in a wheelchair, whilst a third was a woman, beautiful and armed and dangerous, clutching a young boy within her arms with a wicked smile split maliciously across her face.

“Excuse me one second,” Batman said, and J’onn withdrew hurriedly from his mind, not wishing to intrude, even as he thought that the man’s voice sounded a little hoarse.

They all nodded quickly, and Batman paced over to the other side of the gym and answered the phone that had rung from his belt. Flash began making small chatter with Shayera, although J’onn saw his concerned glances at   
Batman, and for his part, J’onn carefully turned his back and pretended that he hadn’t seen his compatriot’s hands shaking when he answered the call.

He couldn’t, however, turn off his superhearing, so he heard Batman’s call.

“Hello?” he picked up the phone with, speaking quietly but not quietly enough for J’onn.

“Tim? What’s wrong?” Batman asked urgently, and then there was an intake of breath and a sigh of relief.

“This is the emergency phone, Tim. Damien hiding your coffee again is not an emergency. I thought-“

“No, Damien is to be in the same condition I last saw him in-“

“Put him on the phone.”

“Give your brother back his coffee,”

“I don’t care. I am working, stop fighting, I’ll be home soon,”

“Yes, I’ll read you a story tonight. Now goodbye, and don’t call this phone again unless it’s an actual emergency,”

Batman walked back across the room to them, pocketing the phone as he did so.

“One off,” Batman promised tightly, and Flash perked up again, bounding forwards to irritate Batman again now that it was clear that there was no emergency going on.

J’onn looked over at Batman, unsure if the man knew that he could hear his conversation, and a little surprised by his newfound knowledge of Batman’s child (or more accurately, his children), but when there was no acknowledgement from the man, J’onn decided that it didn’t matter.

He could keep a secret, kept many in fact, and J’onn was sure that Batman would reveal his when he was ready.

Until then, J’onn would keep his knowledge to himself.

* * *

  
_5\. At an event_

Diana fiddled with the flowing sleeves of her dress again, unaccustomed to moving around in such loose material. She had picked the green dress because Steve had told her, what felt like eons ago, that it made her look beautiful, and she was going for ‘stunning’ tonight. After all, she wasn’t sure how well the others were going to clean up. She often wound up doing PR control, and Diana was kind of hopeful that the green dress would pre-emptively help her with that tonight.

“You look wonderful,” Superman said sincerely as he arrived, floating down from the sky gently and attempting not to draw too much attention to himself. It was a losing battle, but Diana didn’t have the heart to tell him that.  
“Thanks,” Diana smiled at him, and winked “You look pretty handsome yourself,” 

He laughed brightly. She had been telling the truth though; Clark had found a fitting tuxedo from somewhere and wore the black three-piece with a deep blue tie that brought out his eyes. Diana was fairly confident that she saw Lois’ capable hand in that particular fashion choice.

“Any idea what time Batman will be getting here?” he asked, and she shrugged inelegantly, finally letting go of the offending sleeve and bringing her hand down to her side.

“I’m sure it’ll be sometime soon,” she offered, and Clark hummed in agreement, his head tilted slightly to the side as he listened out for the man’s heartbeat, sure to be coming towards them in one of the many cars that lined the road. She had opted to wait for the pair of them by the side of the doors, not wanting to enter and immediately be swamped, and hopeful that the three of them would be able to manage the situation more easily.

Diana inspected the oncoming cars, wondering which one Batman would be in, as she had always known Batman to be punctual, so it was unlikely to take long.

Indeed, it was only a few moments before Clark looked up at her and indicated slightly to a black luxury car pulling up a little way away, so she straightened Clark’s tie with a smile, and they walked in comfortable quiet over it.

As usual, she was glad of Superman’s presence, especially at high media events like these, and they had struck up an easy friendship. That was what allowed her to read quietly into the edge of long-suffering into the smile the man was currently wearing, although partially she noticed it because she was sure it was lining her own expression too.

Really, she wasn’t setting high expectations on Batman tonight. He hadn’t even trusted them with his identity yet, so it was entirely a matter of literally everyone else being busy, and the importance of the gala that had resulted in his attendance. He was a blunt man who enjoyed directness; she occasionally saw another side to him, but she really doubted that one of his yet-unearthed skills was to charm.

Nevertheless, when Batman stepped out, Diana found herself pleasantly surprised. Like Superman, he was wearing a tuxedo, although his looked tailor-made, and she wondered at his wealth (not for the first time). She had vetoed the idea of uniforms, for all three of them, because in attendance there were key sponsors that might be necessary and some other high-up political figures that Wonder Woman wanted on their side the next time there was an Incident.

There always was another Incident.

His tie was impeccably straight, and also black, to match his jacket. There was little personality to it, but she supposed she wasn’t really expecting anything more from the man. His cowl was the part that she took most note of; he wasn’t wearing his usual Batman cowl, but instead a modified domino mask that had been extended to hide the top part of his face in its entirety. A part of his ongoing effort to hide his identity.

It was a nice change, however, to be able to see his hair, and Diana was rather surprised when she noted that despite its black colour, there were streaks of grey running through it. They fell in step together, walking over to the door, and stopped by the clerk with an invite list.

“Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman,” she said with a smile to the clerk at the door, who looked up in shock and motioned them through with a stuttered “W-welcome!”. He didn’t bother to check his list, Diana noted with a wry grin.

Once inside, the three paused for a moment, and Batman took the opportunity to melt off to the side. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, and she took the opportunity to hiss her surprised observations to Clark.

“Did you see? His hair- how old is Batman?” Diana whispered furiously, and Superman shrugged a little bemusedly in response.

“I don’t know- I thought he was in his twenties or thirties because of the way he fights but-“ 

“He must be at least fifty,” Diana concluded quietly, eyes wide at the thought and ready to discuss further, but she noticed some of the tables nearby staring at them in excited glee. She winced.

“Time to socialise,” she told Superman, and dragged him over to the nearest table.

It took them a good hour or so to walk around all of the small groups lingering around the first hall, and Diana realised she didn’t actually know how many more halls there were. 

Clark excused himself with a smile, walking over to grab some refreshments, and began talking with another group nearby. Diana scanned the room instead, taking a moment to relax, and as she did so, she spotted Batman at the back of the hall, sipping from something alcoholic.

Diana picked her way carefully through the crowd to him, snagging a cocktail for herself off a nearby table, and greeting him politely when she arrived.

He nodded at her in return, and they both looked out at the crowded hall for a moment, before Diana pushed herself off the wall with a sigh. “Come socialise,” she told him, hinting with an eyebrow that it was, after all, their purpose there, and Batman sighed, unusually expressive.

He stepped forwards with her as she moved away, and she barely had time to be satisfied before there was a small blur in front of them and suddenly a young man was standing there, slightly shorter than she was in her heels, and panting a little desperately.

“Batman!” he cried out eagerly, thrusting a pen out in front of him and pressing it into Batman’s hands with a bright red flush. “Could you- could you sign me an autograph?”

Batman looked at the man in front of him, appearing to be considering something, and Diana saw his lips twist with some unnamed expression before he growled out a sharp “No,” in response, and walked on. 

The young man stood in awkward humiliation for a moment, and Diana found herself fuming at Batman’s casual dismissal of a fan.

“Here,” she said softly, grabbing the pen and signing her name neatly across the young man’s hand. “He’s just a little busy,” she excused, and stormed off after Batman, determined to make Batman pay for his cruelty.

She found him a little way ahead, and hissed angrily at him, trusting the noise of the live music to cover her furious words.

“How dare you,” she hissed at him, and Batman had the audacity to look surprised for a moment, then he seemed to realise what she was talking about, and sighed.

“You don’t have the full story,” he said, and Diana scoffed.

"I'm not sure your 'full story' excuses you," she mocked angrily, and became even more incensed when he merely shrugged at her.

"Later," he told her dismissively, and walked off, leaving her fuming in his wake.

It wasn’t for the last time that evening either. She personally saw him reject another man’s nervous request, as well as a scrawny teenager’s and a child’s. Clark said that he’d seen Batman refuse to sign the hand of a young woman too, but Diana resolved to say something about it later- although out of the eyes of the public, given that his first response had hardly been positive.

That plan went out of the window as she overheard that he had rejected a young woman in a wheelchair too, some paralysed daughter of a police chief.

She saw red as she heard the latest news, and muttered an excuse to the man she had been making small talk with, determined to go and find him, and force him to think about his behaviour and stop acting so cruelly. Someone had mentioned that they'd seen him go upstairs, so she marched up the nearest set of stairs she could find, reaching the top and seeing nobody.

“Batman,” Diana yelled, possibly a little too loudly, but thankfully there didn’t seem to be anyone upstairs to pass on their argument and cause (another) set of PR issues.

What she saw was not what she was expecting.

The man in question was tucked up against a wall, next to a young woman who was snuggled into his embrace. Diana found herself quite agape at the sight, and struggled for a minute to find the words.

“Batman, you've been- how long have you been up here, with some woman!? We've got a job to do, did you forget that? You shouldn't be up here with some- some conquest! And I need to talk to you about your attitude towards fans, because frankly its rude and demeaning, and I don't think-" 

“Shh,” Batman said, unexpectedly softly, and Diana blinked, the wind taken out of her sails a little as she saw the harsh man brush tender fingers over the forehead of the girl next to him.

“No, you don’t get to shush me,” she snapped, summoning her anger back again, and Batman sighed.

“You should tell them,” the young woman suddenly said, her voice soft and melodic in the echoing quiet of the upstairs rooms, and her hand fluttered quickly in what looked a lot like sign language.

It was then that Clark walked in. “Tell them what?” he demanded, eyes flickering to the scene in front of him, and drawing the same conclusions as Diana. 

Batman made no attempt to move, but he didn’t directly respond to the question posed to him.

“…I suppose you’re fine then,” he said to the girl, signing it too, and Diana rolled her eyes, walking over to Clark’s side as she folded her arms and waited for Batman to pay attention to them again. She was more than a little intrigued by Batman’s sudden knowledge of sign language, but her curiosity was tucked firmly behind her anger at his behaviour, playing around up here whilst they actually worked downstairs.

The girl laughed peacefully, and Batman smiled gently, rolling his eyes too, but in a manner that was far more fond than Diana’s had been. The girl stood up from the floor with a graceful stretch, and Batman stood up too, looking a little stiff. She hugged him tightly, then skipped off out of the room, closing the door with a soft push behind her, and finally, finally, Batman looked up at them.

“I guess it’s time for the full story,” he said, and Diana raised her eyebrows.

“If you don’t mind,” Superman said tersely, and Batman sighed again, motioning for them both to take a seat.

“This is- not what it looks like,” he said quietly.

Diana snorted. “It better not be,”

Batman looked up at them, almost hesitantly, and then a decision flashed behind his eyes.

“Okay, what I’m about to tell you must be top-secret,” he threatened, and both Wonder Woman and Superman gave him a look of incredulity, even as they both sat in the chairs that had been offered to them.

“Well- that girl you just met- that’s Cass. She’s my daughter,” 

Diana and Clark blinked at him, bug-eyed in surprise, and Diana cast aside her shock long enough to find a fumbling “You have a daughter!?”

Batman nodded placably. Clark appeared to be trying to wrap his head around the whole thing, and followed her up with “How did you hide a child from us?”

Batman winced, and both Superman and Wonder Woman zeroed in on the action with narrowed eyes.

“Well, actually- I have more than one child,” he admitted, and Diana didn’t think that she could be any more shocked.

“What- How- You’re a father?” she stuttered out, and Batman shrugged, a little sheepishly. “How many children?” she asked, and Batman smiled awkwardly.

“Officially, I have three,” he said slowly, and Clark caught the technicality.

“Unofficially?” he asked.

Batman shrugged. “I’m not actually sure,” 

“How- how can you not know how many children you have?” Diana asked in bewilderment, and Batman looked at her for a moment.

“All of the kids who asked me for an autograph today- they are kind of mine,” he said, and Diana felt her mouth drop further as she mentally counted.

“That’s at least six!” she gasped, and felt glad that she was sitting down. She blinked. "Wait, is that why you were dismissing them all?"

Batman nodded, rolling his eyes with a frown. "They were messing with me. They're messing with me even by being here," he said a little pointedly, and Diana wondered if she imagined a quiet chuckle that seemed to come from the nearby vent.

She shot it a quick glance, and although nothing seemed out of the ordinary, Batman nodded at her once and she knew her suspicions had been correct. He didn’t move though, so she assumed it wasn’t anything to be worried about.

What are their names?” Clark asked, and Diana felt her shock rise again as she noticed the positively blinding grin that appeared on Batman’s face as he spoke about his children (Well, blinding by Batman's standards).

She exchanged a wide-eyed look with Clark. Batman was a father.

“Well you met Cass, then there’s Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, kind of Stephanie, Babs and Duke,” Batman listed off, and with each name, Diana’s eyes grew bigger.

“Do you just- how on earth-“ Clark sputtered. Diana sympathised.

“Only Damian is biologically mine,” Batman replied calmly, as if it had been an actual question, and Diana took note of two of the names that had been mentioned in particular.

“Wait, Dick and Steph? Were they the names on your armour in the neon paint?” she asked, and Batman rolled his eyes.

“Yes,” he said.

“That was almost a year ago!” Clark exclaimed, both of them still blown away by the fact that Batman had a family, and was a father, and had kept it from them all for this long. 

Diana felt a headache coming on.

“Can we meet them?” Superman asked, suddenly serious. 

Batman eyed them both warily. 

Diana added her two cents. “Surely we’ve proven that we are trustworthy,” 

Batman still looked a little wary, but now that Diana knew of their existence, she was suddenly eager to meet the children who had been raised by Batman, a man who she had thought to be almost unfeeling a mere half hour ago.

Apparently she had been very wrong.

"Okay," Batman surprised them both by saying, and he looked them both in the eyes. "I will allow you to meet them soon, but not today, and you cannot tell anyone else in the meantime," he ordered, and the two agreed quickly.

Batman stood up and walked over to the door, leaving them both sitting in mild shock behind him. Diana wondered if he was going to say anything more, but instead he opened the door to the party, and gestured at it, not subtly. She exchanged a look with Clark again, and the two of them struggled back to their feet to rejoin the gala, ignoring the bombshell that had just been dropped on them.

Diana made a mental note to stock up on the alcohol. She and Clark were going to need it for a long, long discussion later. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And- chapter 2! Finally the meeting. Took a while to do, as apparently it decided that it needed to be about the length of all the previous chapters put together. I hope you enjoy!

+1 _In the Batcave_

“Master Wayne?” Alfred said, his tone calm and polite as always, and Bruce startled at his voice.

“Yes, Alfred?” he replied, turning to face his butler as though the man hadn’t found him standing in the Batcave, staring worriedly at a blank wall.

“Will you be wanting any tea?” Alfred asked, and Bruce quirked a smile.

“I think we’ll be okay, Alfred. I’m not planning on this meeting taking very long,” he said, and Alfred dipped his head obediently.

“Of course. Not long at all, I’m sure,” Alfred replied, seemingly compliant but Bruce caught the undertone of humour that lay underneath the man’s façade, and glared at Alfred’s back.

“You should get ready, Master Wayne,” Alfred called out without turning around, ascending the stairs from the Batcave. Bruce rolled his eyes, and sent a fond smile in the direction of his pseudo-father.

The man was right though, so Bruce walked across the cave to the bench he had put his cowl on earlier, and slipped it on over his head. It felt a little stupid without the rest of the uniform, but this was his home and if he was inviting the League in, he was already in trouble if one of them decided to betray him.

Besides, he’d promised Dick that he would play frisbee with him afterwards. That tended to end in a full scale brawl with all his boys (and the occasional girl) and he couldn’t be bothered to change his clothes three times in one day.

He checked his watch absent-mindedly, noting that the League would be arriving in five minutes, and went to sit at his computers, thankful that Tim had listened to him for once and hadn’t slept on the computers as he was wont to do after some of his shifts.

He sat down on the comfortable chair with a small groan, his back reminding him that he needed to stop letting himself get tossed around quite so much, and he reached out to take a small sip of his warm coffee. He’d managed a full three hours of sleep the night before, which had been more than most of the past week since Steph had been off on a school trip and hadn’t been around to take her turn on patrol.

The sensors in front of him binged suddenly, and Bruce almost spilt his coffee down his shirt, only just managing to contain the movement and save his outfit.

He cursed faintly, glancing up to see on the camera that Superman was hovering just outside the main entrance to the Batcave. He looked a little uncertain, and Batman was glad that he had waited to be allowed in. At least he could rely on Clark to be polite.

“Come in,” Bruce leant forwards and said on the microphone, although fairly sure that Superman could hear him even if the microphone had been switched off. “Tell the others they can come in too,”

He hadn’t been quite sure who else was waiting, but Bruce had been fairly confident that the others would be around too, and simply letting Superman take the first step as the kindest and most invulnerable of the lot.

He smiled wryly as he saw his guess was correct, seeing Diana zoom down to join Superman completely unabashedly, and Green Lantern walking down out of the bushes at the side. He (at least) looked a little ashamed of trying to deceive Batman.

For his part, Superman allowed himself to float to the ground, and the three heroes walked into the dark entrance of the cave together, with Bruce watching on the cameras as they made their way down the tunnels to the actual entrance of the cave, where he was currently, and he stood up, walking over to the door and placed his hand on the sensors to allow them in.

It slid open smoothly, and Batman stood to the side silently to allow them in.

They weren’t having a full meeting of the JLA; it was more of a key members meeting to discuss what their plans were with the recent destruction of the Watchtower and the chaos it had caused. Arthur and Shayera were still off in their respective regions, no doubt finding more trouble, so neither of them would be joining them either.

They were only missing two- Flash, who Batman was fairly confident would be late, and J’onn, who would surely be right on time. Batman closed his eyes for a moment as the three heroes walked past him into the cave, and sent out a mental message to the Martian, saying _‘You are welcome to come straight in when you arrive’_. He received a quiet mental confirmation, so he turned back to the room and watched as Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern stared around his base.

Hal was rather awed by the natural beauty of the caves, but his attention had been immediately drawn to the equipment section, where his mouth literally dropped open at the sight of Batman’s many Batarangs, welded professionally and sharpened to deadly edges, and the small hoard of other strange and peculiar pieces of technology that ranged from training equipment to intricate weaponry and half-finished machines.

Diana was most struck by the computer systems, with monitors that ran from the floor to near touching the ceiling, and she wandered over to marvel at it. She didn’t understand a lot of man’s creations, but she would always remain amazed by what they could do without any powers at all. She saw on the screens, too, a multitude of camera angles that spanned across the room they were in and the house that must be nearby. She frowned, and stepped closer as she spotted a young child, sitting alone in some kind of living room, and realised that he must be one of Batman’s children that he had told them about all those weeks ago.

Batman spotted Diana’s attentions, and paced over to her, pressing the power button and turning off the monitors she was looking at. His boys could look after themselves for a little bit, and he had the emergency protocols attached to his watch and phone, which would let him know if his presence was truly necessary.

Diana rolled her eyes at him, and he motioned towards the large table that sat a little awkwardly at the side of the room, chairs around it for the League to sit in. She began heading towards it, resolving to herself that she was going to act more mature than she had done before. It was only befitting of her status as an Amazonian, and Diana had made mistakes about Batman in her quick temper, which she hoped that she would be able to avoid doing so again.

Clark, on the other hand, had found himself fascinated by the array of costumes that were out on display. Most of the costumes were variations of Batman’s costume, and he was fairly sure that the one on the far right was the one that Batman used most at the moment, but there were also a fair few that weren’t Batman’s. There were two or three that looked small enough to fit a child, one in garish yellow and green that Clark vaguely recalled seeing about in a news article years ago, another that was far more faded and even smaller than the first, and one that was much newer and made of stronger material, with a cape attached. There were a couple that looked more like female costumes, with the Bat insignia still spread across the chest, but in yellow, and another in purple.

The one that intrigued him most of all though, was the one with a plaque at the bottom that simply read ‘Robin’. It was another set of garish colours, much like the one that Clark had seen on the other side of the cases, but this one was far more tattered and was ripped in places, with blood stains marring it. He frowned at it, turning to inquire about it, but Batman was right behind him when he turned around, with a fierce glare on his face.

“Get away from that,” he hissed, and Clark stepped back in surprise.

“Of course, sorry,” he replied lightly, not intending to cause any trouble, and turned around to head back to the table. He could ask about the story another time. Batman was a private man, after all.

Just as Clark was settling at the table, there was a clatter of noise from the door, and Barry burst in apologetically, J’onn stepping in calmly behind him.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to be late, it’s just that I was doing this thing and then I lost track of time and then my friend turned up and we chatted and then-“

“Take a seat,” Batman said, cutting off the Flash’s babbling, and Barry subsided thankfully, zooming towards the table then seeming to get distracted by Batman’s equipment as well and joining Hal in his inspection of Batman’s things.

“Thank you for allowing us to meet here, Batman,” J’onn said in his deep voice, and Batman nodded back in acknowledgement.

“If we may begin?” Batman inquired as he and J’onn walked over to join the others at the table, Hal and Barry turning around hurriedly and joining them as well.

“Of course,” Diana replied, and Batman ceded the floor to her, allowing the meeting to start.

It was all running smoothly for the first half hour or so, and then there was a loud _thud_ from somewhere above the cave. Everyone appeared startled, and exchanged curious looks, apart from Batman, who sighed deeply, and stood up.

“Excuse me one moment,” he told the table, who were more confused than concerned, and they all watched as Batman walked to a previously unnoticed set of stairs at the back of the cave, climbing them and walking through some door at the top.

There was a distant sound of shouting, and Diana cleared her throat. “Right- um- temporary accommodation?” she tried, and Clark jumped on the conversation too.

Batman came back down a few minutes later, and re-joined the discussion, and the League had almost forgotten about the interruption when the sound of an engine growled down the tunnel towards the cave.

“Were you expecting someone else?” Hal asked Batman tensely, and Batman shook his head.

“No, but he is a- a friend,” he told them, and Clark and Diana exchanged excited looks. They both noted the hesitation, and took it to mean that they were either about to meet a genuine, real life friend of Batman’s, or one of his sons.

“Yo, B! Can I park down here today? Bike almost got taken last week and you know what a hassle it is to get it back again. You don’t mind do you- oh,” a man’s voice called out, the sound getting louder as he approached the door, and cutting himself off when he opened the door and saw the League members all staring at him.

“You didn’t say you were going to have company?” the man asked, dressed in a leather jacket and ripped jeans, and Batman stood up again, facing him.

“I wasn’t expecting you here today,” he replied, and the stranger grinned widely. There was a streak of light grey in his tousled hair, and Clark thought he looked rather punk rock.

“I promised Dick that we’d have a game of frisbee!” he exclaimed, and Batman sighed again. “Going to introduce me, Bats?”

Batman turned back to the table, and said “This is my- this is Red Hood,”

The newly-named Red Hood stalked over to the table and looked down at them all, and Clark had the sudden sensation that he was being judged.

“I’m Jason,” he said finally, looking round at them. “I’m his son,”

Diana and Clark looked up at Jason in slight amazement, still unaccustomed to the idea that Batman had _children_. The others, however, had had no idea about it at all, and were even more surprised.

“I’m sorry, you’re _what_!?” Flash squeaked, and Jason looked surprised.

“He hasn’t told you about us?” he asked, and it was Hal’s turn to practically choke on his own surprise.

“Us?” he repeated, and Jason swung back to look at Batman, who almost looked sheepish.

“Have you not told them?” he asked the man (his _father_ , Diana thrilled) and Batman shrugged. “Wait, please tell me you at least told them who you are,”

“It’s secret for a reason,” Batman replied, and Jason covered his face with a hand, standing in silence for a moment as he seemed to consider Batman’s words.

“It’s your life, old man,” he finally said, tossing a wave behind him as he too walked off to the stairs that Batman had gone up earlier. Batman was left standing there, and Clark looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Later,” Batman promised Clark, and Diana narrowed her eyes at the superhero until Batman nodded at her too, promising an explanation for her as well.

“Shall we continue?” Batman asked, sitting down, and Barry sat bolt upright.

“Continue!? Did nobody else just hear that _Batman_ has a _son?_ ” he exclaimed, and J’onn looked in Flash’s direction.

“I do not see how it is of consequence,” he said calmly, and Flash slumped back into his seat.

“ _Do not see_ , what- how-“ he mumbled to himself, and Batman appeared content to ignore him, although Flash noticed the amused looks that Wonder Woman and Superman were sending his way. He stuck his tongue out at them (behind his hands; he wasn’t idiot enough to tease Wonder Woman to her face, whether she was mocking him or not).

“ _Old man,”_ he mumbled, and Hal shot him a sympathetic look. He was reeling from the discovery as well, but Batman gave him slightly less leeway when it came to childish antics than he did Barry.

They tried to continue again, almost reaching the last item on Batman’s agenda, when inevitably they were interrupted again.

“B!” a loud voice shouted from above, clearly right beside the door that led- somewhere? Clark realised he didn’t actually know where he was, but resisted using his x-ray vision out of respect for Batman’s privacy. Although, knowing how paranoid his fellow hero was, Clark thought it was likely that the entire cave had been covered in lead to stop him seeing beyond it.

“How about you just introduce us?” Clark suggested to Batman, receiving a glare in response, but the look was somewhat losing effect with every affectionate nickname Superman heard people call Batman.

“ _What_ ,” Batman ground out, not turning to look as the door swung open, but everyone else did. At the top of the stairs, stood a tall young man, probably in his mid twenties, with a lithe frame and tight clothing.

“Do you know what Jason’s just told me?” the man gasped dramatically, leaping down the stairs like some kind of acrobat.

“To go upstairs, be quiet, and leave me alone?” Batman suggested, and Hal snorted, then realised the world really must be ending if _Batman_ was making jokes that he found _funny_.

The man pouted. “Why are you so mean to me! I’m your firstborn, doesn’t that count for anything?” he dramatically draped himself around Batman’s tight shoulders, and grinned at the rest of the Justice League, who were staring at him wide-eyed.

“Hello! I’m Dick, nice to meet you all,” he beamed, far friendlier than Batman’s other son, Jason, had been, but Clark wasn’t fooled. There was a sharpness behind his open features too, and Clark kind of wished that Batman’s family would stop being so competent and protective.

“Hey- Dick,” Clark awkwardly replied, beating Diana to the punch.

“Nice to see you again Clark,” Dick winked flirtatiously, and Clark flushed.

“Again?” he asked, and Dick cocked his head.

“I’m Nightwing,” he said simply.

“Bats, your son is a crime fighter too!?” Barry asked in complete and utter shock, having just about gotten over the first shock of Batman being a father to not one, but two children.

Dick snorted. “Oh boy, Jason was right, you really haven’t told them anything.”

Batman growled. “Secret. Identity.”

Dick waved a careless hand. “Yeah, yeah, secret identity, all that, so does that mean you don’t want me to tell them my last name?”

Batman turned to face his son for the first time. The Justice League watched on in fascination.

“Your last name won’t tell them anything,” he said simply, and Dick mock pouted again.

“You mean- you don’t think I’m a member of your family?” he mimed shock, stumbling back a step, and Batman sighed. “After all we’ve been through B, you deny me your last name?”

“You don’t even want it,” Batman muttered, turning back to the table again, and Dick straightened with a laugh.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll send Dami in, shall I?” Dick asked innocently, and Batman finally gave in, putting a hand up to his forehead briefly, then taking it down again as he recalled that he was in front of the JLA still.

“Fine,” Batman ground out reluctantly. “Tell Alfred to put some tea on,”

“Will do!” Dick chirped, bouncing back up the stairs and flying through the exit.

“And no-one else comes down here!” Batman shouted after him, receiving no response, and Diana thought it likely that his words wouldn’t be listened to.

“Batman, how about we talk quickly and then you can take us upstairs for tea?” she questioned, having seen the undercurrent in the conversation between Dick and Batman, and extremely willing to take advantage of Batman’s capitulation to his son.

Batman looked around the table, seeing the latent amusement and curiosity in every face, and sighed. Hal thought suddenly that the man had never seemed more human, nor more likeable. He wondered too how seeing Batman’s interactions with both of his kids at the same time would change his perception of the man. And that wasn’t even looking at the mention of ‘Alfred’- another son? A brother? A father?

J’onn smiled to himself at the sight of Batman’s interactions. He had known about at least a few children for quite a while now, and had always sensed that the man wasn’t as heartless as he made himself out to be, so he thought it would be nice for the others to see the same.

Their meeting ended quickly, although it seemed to pass incredibly slowly for the heroes who were rather excited to get upstairs and meet Batman’s children properly, with Diana and Clark looking forward to both seeing more of Batman’s kids and seeing the reactions of J’onn, Hal and Barry to the realisation that Batman was apparently incapable of not adopting every child he saw. They had been blown away by the fact, and when she and Clark had met up to gossip later, they had both spent a few hours marvelling over the concept.

It was good that they didn’t continue past about ten minutes, because just as they finished up the meeting, a boy appeared silhouetted at the top of the stairs.

“Your presence is requested,” he said stiffly, and Diana saw Bruce trying to suppress a small smile as the boy spoke, and internally she squealed.

“We are coming,” Batman replied, not quite as formally as the boy (his son; Diana really needed to get used to saying that), and stood up from the table. “If you wish, I have tea upstairs. Feel free to leave now if you are busy,”

The rest of the Justice League stood up from the table too, and walked over towards Batman. Clark risked placing a hand on the man’s shoulder, and replied “I can’t wait to meet your children, Batman,” in his earnest, sincere voice.

Batman seemed to relax the slightest amount. “You will regret saying that,” he warned, and Clark laughed brightly, falling behind the man and allowing him to lead them all up the stairs.

“Holy shit,” Flash whispered as he reached the top of the stairs, and emerged into a brightly-light hallway, with plush carpets and opulent decorations. There were paintings hanging delicately down the rather wide corridor, and there was a small bubble of noise coming from the room at the end, which looked to be just around the corner.

Diana privately agreed, although refrained from voicing her shock herself. They had all theorised over where Batman’s money came from, but for all that the leading theory was ‘financed by a millionaire’, it appeared that the truth was that Batman _was_ a millionaire.

Or billionaire.

They walked quietly down the stately hallway, the sheer display of wealth forcing them into quiet awe, although Hal and Barry snickered quietly as they saw the door frame of another room lined with pencil marks, clearly showing the growth of Batman’s two children.

Hal thought that there were rather a lot of lines on it for two kids, but he didn’t have time to think on it properly before they were walking into the end room and into some kind of sitting room, with a table set out in the centre full of small treats, and wide sofas around the sides of the room.

And it was full of people.

Flash froze in his tracks, causing Hal to crash into him, and the two just stared around the room. Diana and Clark walked straight in, hardly appearing phased (which Barry mourned as quite unfair) and they quickly had to move to the side to allow J’onn to walk past, breaking Flash out of his semi-trance.

“Bat-Batman!” he sputtered, and the man looked up, now seated on a small armchair at the other end of the room.

“This is- a _lot_ more than two children,” he said numbly, and a ripple of laughter rang out around the room, which was apparently set for a family of near a dozen.

A man stepped forwards from the side, grey hair neatly brushed down and not a hair out of place on his smart uniform. “Please, do sit down,” he said warmly, motioning the pair over to the only vacant seats, where they sat in a slight daze.

“Yes, apparently Dick decided that we needed a family day,” Batman responded, narrowing his eyes at the eldest boy in suspicion, fairly confident that the entire meeting had been engineered by his mischievous children since it was rare for them all to be in the manor at once, outside of special occasions like holidays and birthdays. Dick smiled back angelically, and Batman raised an eyebrow to indicate that they would be having a chat before the other man left back for Bludhaven.

“Allow me to introduce everyone,” he said, giving in for now and gesturing towards the man who had just spoken to Green Lantern and Flash and saying “This is Alfred, the butler,”

“You’ve met Jason and Dick,” he continued, and the two men waved from the other side of the room, where they seemed to be sat in an odd crush of limbs with a younger boy- the one who had called them in, Hal realised suddenly.

“That’s Damian with them-“

“-who are you and what do you want with Fath-“

“-shut up, demon brat-“

“-get- mmmrph- off me-

“-you get off me-“

“Jason, get your hand off Damian’s mouth, Damian don’t be rude to my guests, Dick please do something instead of laughing,” Batman cut in over the squabbling that had broken out, and Clark began to grin widely, beginning to picture the hero as a dad. Normally his attitude made him stick out wherever they were, but here it was only the cowl that was amiss in such an entertaining family picture.

“Tim’s the one on his phone- which he will be putting away now,” Batman said, his tone shifting to stern, and a gangly teenager looked up in sudden awareness, hastily stashing away his phone before Batman could take it off him.

“This is Cassandra,” he continued, motioning to the beautiful young lady in the next sofa along from his own seat, curled somewhat timidly into another girl, who was looking at them all with a mischievous grin. “And Steph,”

“Barbara’s by the door, with Duke” a young woman in a wheelchair nodded towards them, and continued a quiet conversation with a slightly awkward looking teenager, who Flash assumed must be Duke.

Batman paused, scanning the room, and (apparently satisfied) told his children “Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter,”

None of them appeared that shocked by their hero identities, and it confirmed J’onn’s suspicions that all of the people sitting in the room had had experience in crime fighting. The costumes downstairs would have fitted some of the people who were now in front of him, and given that Dick had already confirmed his identity as Nightwing, it would fit. He would admit that he was a little surprised by the sheer number of children that Batman appeared to have taken in, but mostly he was just honoured to be trusted enough to allowed to meet them all.

Clark, meanwhile, was looking around the room with joy, sipping happily on a cup of tea that Alfred had been kind enough to silently provide whilst Batman did introductions. He quickly became engaged in conversation with Dick, who had apparently grown bored of monitoring and mocking his brothers, and who turned out to be extremely cheerful and great conversation. He wondered how Batman had produced such a child.

Meanwhile, J’onn felt an odd presence in the room and reached out with his mind, finding that one of the girls- Cassandra- appeared to have a low-level of telepathic ability, and proceeded to quietly hold a conversation with her, enjoying the familiarity of her mind working in images and scents and sounds instead of words like most humans did. He nodded to Batman when he looked between the pair of them, and received a small smile in return.

Hal and Flash became occupied with the small, chaotic trio that was Jason, Steph and Damian, the former two happily bickering with one another and Damian getting mocked by both of them, and in turn mocking and ignoring the two older heroes, who became more and more determined to provoke a positive response from him. Steph and Jason joined forces to feed them awful advice on how to do that, and Tim wondered occasionally if he should join in, then decided that he was rather happy with a cup of coffee and time to work on his phone without anyone scolding him.

Bruce looked around the room and smiled. Maybe it hadn’t been such a bad idea to introduce the two sections of his life to each other. It was odd, seeing the Justice League in his home, even though a lot had happened to force them to form friendships over the past couple of months, and he was glad of the opportunity, really. It would be pleasant if Clark and Diana in particular were to stop jumping at him during regular meetings, and Bruce wondered if perhaps this was the key to changing their attitudes.

He went to lift his cup of tea to his mouth, but Damian cut in from across the room and said “Father, we aren’t allowed uniforms at mealtimes,”

Clark choked on his tea, Diana smirked at the sound of a rule that was tried and tested, J’onn remained silent to see how the scenario was going to play out, Hal froze and Barry reached very slowly for another cupcake, as though nobody would be able to spot him doing it.

“You know that’s the rule,” chirped Dick, and Batman slowly set down his cup of tea, raising his head and meeting the eyes of his children as they beamed at him from around the room. He looked down at Cass, who smiled sweetly back, and Bruce sighed.

“You may not share my identity with anyone else,” he warned the Justice League members, and they all promised quietly, most in quiet disbelief at the thought that they were going to learn Batman’s identity.

He shook his head at his family, a fond smile curling on his lips even as he reached up and pulled off the cowl.

“What!?” Flash gasped loudly, Clark’s teacup clattering onto the table as he sat back and tried to work out how he had missed the fact that _Bruce Wayne_ was Batman when he had written far too many article pieces on the man to have missed this vital piece of information. He also averted his eyes with a blush, and Jason eyed him up from the side with a smirk as he noticed. Clark was too busy working out what on earth life had come to.

J’onn continued as if nothing had happened (because really, it meant little to him) and it was Hal’s turn to attempt to force his brain to compute new facts.

“The Waynes,” Diana commented lowly, loud enough for most people in the room to hear if they were listening, but mostly directing her comment at Bruce. She had a real name for the face now, and she mentally revised her opinion on Batman’s age, noting that she and Clark probably ought never to tell him about that.

“Yes,” Bruce confirmed quietly, looking her in the eyes and Diana revelled in the sensation that finally they were both being honest with one another. She thought that perhaps she could grow to become good friends with Bruce, or at least friendly enough to be able to come over and talk to some of his kids. There was a twinkle of fierceness in the eyes of the girl he’d introduced as Steph, not to mention the quiet determination in the boy who sat in the corner- Tim.

“A lovely family,” Clark joined in, looking towards Bruce as he looked around the room at the both of them.

Bruce didn’t reply, but Diana and Clark saw the happiness that lingered in his eyes for the first time since that reveal at the gala, and they knew that finally, this was the real Batman.

The real Batman wasn’t a leader, or a superhero, a man, a teacher or a socialite. He was a father, and that had been the missing piece that had caused tension until now.

Batman was many things. But above all else, they had finally realised, Batman was a father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed, please do leave me a comment- I love reading them, and I promise to reply!

**Author's Note:**

> Updated chapter 1 to fix mistakes, formatting and added a couple of lines


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